She didn’t speak for the longest time, and Noah was hesitant to speed things up. If this was the only time he’d ever hold her in his arms again, he wanted it to last.
“You didn’t charge enough for this box.”
He stiffened. “What?”
“I would have paid twice as much for it, easily. If you’re going to get into the art business, you need to do some research on the current market.”
“You’re right. I probably do.”
“And even though you live outside city limits, you still have to build your house to code and get the proper permits. You know that, right?”
He did, but he just smiled and let her words wash over him. They felt clean and bright and exactly like her. “I don’t suppose you’d be willing to look into that for me?”
“And if you ever so much as joke about removing your beard again, you won’t like what I have to say on the subject. It stays or I go. Period.”
“You can be my personal consultant in all matters of style and dress,” he promised. “Just say you’ll be mine, Kendra. Just say we can start over again.”
“Oh, Noah. Of course we can’t start over again.” Her lips sought refuge on his, robbing her words of anything but the sweet promise of things to come. “There’s no way I can go through weeks of old-fashioned courtship with you again. I barely survived it the first time.”
He groaned and tightened his hold on her, the jewelry box meshed between their bodies, poking them with its corners. Neither one of them seemed to care. “I forgot about that part.”
“I have an idea,” she said. “Why don’t we pick up exactly where we left off instead? You can squeeze on the back of my bike and stay the night at my place.”
The image conjured up by that had Noah laughing against her, feeling more at home in her arms than he had in a long time. “It’s a deal.”
Hopefully the first of many to come.
Epilogue
“I have a favor to ask, and you have to promise not to get mad when you hear it.”
Noah looked up from the spinning lathe and allowed his foot to fall off the pedal until the machine came to a whirring stop. Although the frame for their house was up—with just a few minor adjustments to the blueprints, courtesy of Kendra’s nonnegotiable request for double sinks in the bathroom—the workshop remained very much his own space.
But he was always happy to stop working for her. Nothing made him feel more at ease than those slight hands running reverentially over his tools. Those hands always found their way closer until they came to rest inside his.
“Is this about Goat eating your shirt? Because I won’t apologize. Her milk has been exceptionally tasty this week. I think silk agrees with her.”
Kendra’s nose wrinkled. “Oh, gross. We’ve been drinking Chanel milk?”
He laughed and swooped her into a kiss, sawdust falling from his hair into hers. Wood and lemon. Two scents that had become so intertwined in his mind he couldn’t imagine one without the other. “What’s this favor? It better be good. I wanted to finish this table before Lincoln gets here. I’m hoping we can set it up in the soon-to-be dining room and eat al fresco.”
“Someday soon we’ll have a roof, and then what will you do? You won’t be able to shock our friends with your backwards, rustic ways.”
“I’ll bring in a fresh kill and command them to skin their own dinner,” he teased. “The way God and nature intended.”
Kendra just rolled her eyes. One of their many compromises—successful ones, he might add—was a promise to keep his filthy carcasses out of Kendra’s line of vision at all times. It was a small price to pay to have her delightful carcass in bed with him every night.
“Well, when you and Lincoln are out stalking deer after dinner, will you please see if you can find out his stance on threesomes? Preferably of the male-female-male variety?”
He gripped her waist tightly. “Out with it, woman. This had better not be personal research.”
She giggled. “Oh, it’s not. It’s for Whitney. She’s been trying to find out for months if Lincoln plays well with others, but he’s on to us and refuses to say a word. I’d hire a private investigator to do it for us, but...”
Noah sighed and dropped a kiss on her forehead before releasing her. “I love you, Kendra Khuso, and I would do almost anything to make you happy. But I draw the line at prying into Lincoln’s sex life.”
“But this is important,” she protested. “Fifty dollars and Whitney’s pride are at stake.”
“No.”
“Not even if I do this?” She wound her arms around his waist, one hand slipping surreptitiously downward.
“Not even then.”
“What about if I do this?” She kissed him along his jawline, nipping where hair met skin, her teeth scraping a fiery path.
“Nope.”
She grabbed a fistful of his shirt and yanked, pulling him away from the lathe and toward a convenient cot in the back. They both shared fond memories of this place, but the cot had been her idea.
“Give me five minutes. I’ll change your mind about this, just like I always do.”
He let her lead the way. “You can certainly try,” he allowed. “But don’t forget—the last time you tried to win an argument this way, you couldn’t sit down for hours.”
Her eyes glinted, mischievous and warm. “Why, Noah Walker—is that a threat?”
“Better.” He tossed her to the cot and fell on top of her, lost in the sounds and scents and rightness of her. “For you, my dear, it’s a promise.”
* * * * *
In the mood for more feel-good contemporary romance?
Read the first two books in the Getting Physical series—available now!
The Rebound Girl
Plastic surgeon Whitney Vidra knows all about getting over a cheating ex. She followed her boyfriend halfway around the world before she found out about his infidelity. Now she’s focusing on her career and her friends, and using men just for single-serving, no-strings fun. Until she meets charming Matt Fuller.
Whitney is determined to remain attachment-free, but Matt is equally determined to prove to her that what they have is more than just a rebound fling.
The Derby Girl
Roller derby girl Gretchen “Honey Badger” Badgerton lives in the moment, no apologies. Like every woman in Pleasant Park with a pulse, she finds Dr. Jared Fine irresistible, but she’s taken by surprise when her unattainable new neighbor asks her out.
Though Gretchen is hesitant to shatter Jared’s “bad girl” illusion of her, she has to face facts: she’s fallen for the good doctor. She’s used to putting everyone else’s needs before hers, but as their relationship heats up, can she handle having someone take care of her for a change?
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About the Author
Tamara Morgan is a contemporary romance author of humorous, heartfelt stories with flawed heroes and heroines designed to get your hackles up and make your heart melt. Her long-lived affinity for romance novels survived a BA degree in English literature, after which time she discovered it was much more fun to create stories than analyze the life out of them.
Whether building Victorian dollhouses, consuming mass quantities of coffee and wine, or crying over cheesy 1950s musicals, Tamara commits to her flaws like every good heroine should. She lives in the Inland Northwest with her husband, daughter and variety of household pets, and only occasionally complains about the weather.
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ISBN-13: 9781426897931
THE PARTY GIRL
Copyright © 2014 by Tamara Morgan
Edited by Deborah Nemeth
All rights reserved. By payment of the required fees, you have been granted the non-exclusive, non-transferable right to access and read the text of this e-book on-screen. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, down-loaded, decompiled, reverse engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereinafter invented, without the express written permission of publisher, Harlequin Enterprises Limited, 225 Duncan Mill Road, Don Mills, Ontario, Canada M3B 3K9.
All characters in this book have no existence outside the imagination of the author and have no relation whatsoever to anyone bearing the same name or names. They are not even distantly inspired by any individual known or unknown to the author, and all incidents are pure invention.
This edition published by arrangement with Harlequin Books S.A.
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